GEOG 80 Transport Geography
Professor: Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Topic 3 – Transportation Modes
A. Characteristics
B. A Diversity of Modes
C. Intermodal Transportation
Hofstra University, Department of Global Studies & Geography
A – CHARACTERISTICS OF
TRANSPORTATION MODES
1. Vehicles and Infrastructure
2. Modal Competition
3. Passengers and Freight
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
1. Vehicles and Infrastructure
■ Transport modes:
• Means to achieve mobility.
• Each mode had a set of technical, operational and commercial
characteristics.
• Vehicles:
• Mobile segment.
• Supporting the mobility of passengers, freight and information.
• Infrastructures:
• Fixed segment.
• Supporting movements of vehicles.
• Three basic types:
• Land (road, rail and pipelines).
• Water (shipping).
• Air.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Performance Comparison for Selected Freight
Modes
Vehicle
Capacity
Truck Equivalency
Barge
1500 Tons
52,500 Bushels
453,600 Gallons
57.7
(865.4 for 15 barges in tow)
Hopper car
100 Tons
3,500 Bushels
30,240 Gallons
3.8
100 car train unit
Semi-trailer truck
Post-panamax containership
VLCC
747-400F
10,000 Tons
350,000 Bushels
3,024,000 Gallons
26 Tons; 910 Bushels
7,865 Gallons
9,000 for a tanker truck
5,000 TEU
384.6
1
2,116
300,000 tons
2 million barrels of oil
9,330
124 tons
5
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Modal Split in the EU, United States and Japan,
2005 (in % of ton-km)
100%
80%
Pipeline
60%
Coastal
Inland Waterways
Rail
40%
Road
20%
0%
EU
USA
Japan
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Competition and Complementarity
Transport Market
Geographical Market
International / domestic
Passengers / freight
Time / costs
Level of Service
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Forms of Modal Competition
Infrastructure / Route
Mode
B
1
B
2
B
B
B
A
A
5
4
3
Market Area
6
A
A
A
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Distance, Modal Choice and Transport Costs
C1
C2
Road
Transport costs per unit
C3
Rail
D1
Maritime
D2
Distance
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Four Travel Options between New York and
Boston, 2004
Mode
Price (one way)
Time
LimoLiner (luxury bus)
$69
4 hours
Acela (Amtrak train)
$99
3 hours
Greyhound bus
$30
4 hours
Air Shuttle
$128
1 hour (plus check in)
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Advantages and Disadvantages of Joint
Operations
Advantages
Disadvantages
Capital costs
Maintenance costs
Same modes
Locations of demand rarely match.
Different frequency of demand.
Difference timing of service.
Traffic balances.
Tolerance for reliability.
Different operational speeds.
Different security screening measures.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
B – A DIVERSITY OF MODES
1. Road Transportation
2. Rail Transportation
3. Pipelines
4. Maritime Transportation
5. Air Transportation
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
1. Road Transportation
■ Overview
• Small capital costs for vehicles:
• Easy for new users to gain entry.
• Highly competitive.
• Innovations and new technologies can diffuse quickly through the industry.
• High relative speed of vehicles:
• Government-imposed speed limits.
• Flexibility of route choice:
• Once a network of roads is provided.
• Door to door service for both passengers and freight.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
1. Road Transportation
■ History
• The first land roads were trails (hunting):
• Seasonality.
• First nation-states:
• Trails started to be used for commercial purposes.
• Domestification of animals such as horses, mules and camels.
• Wheeled vehicles encouraged construction of better roads.
• Requires a level of labor organization and administrative control:
• Provided by a governmental oversight offering a level of military protection
over trade routes.
• 3,000 BC the first road systems in Mesopotamia.
• Roman Empire 300 BC built the first comprehensive road network.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Roman Road (Appian Way)
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
1. Road Transportation
■ Modern road networks
• Creation of modern nation-states (17th century):
•
•
•
•
National road transportation systems were formally established.
France: Royal Roads system spanning 24,000 km.
Great Britain: 32,000 km system of private toll turnpikes.
United States: 3 million km of roads, most unpaved, were in operation by
the early 20th century.
■ Road engineering
• Construction of reliable and low cost hard surface roads.
• Scottish engineer Macadam developed a process:
• Hard and waterproof road surfaces made by cemented crushed stone,
bound together either with water or with bitumen.
• Improved the reliability and the travel speed on roads.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Macadam Road Construction, Maryland 1823
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
1. Road Transportation
■ National highway systems
•
•
•
•
Lincoln Highway (1920s).
German autobahn (1932).
Road development accelerated in after WWII.
American Interstate highway system:
•
•
•
•
Initiated in 1956.
About 56,000 km was built from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Additional 9,000 km between 1975 and 1998.
Overall, about 70,000 km of four-lane and six-lane highways were
constructed.
• Linking all major American cities, coast to coast.
• Trans-Canada highway “completed” in 1962.
• By the 1970s, every modern nation has constructed a national
highway system.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
German Autobahn, circa 1936
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Length of the Interstate Highway System, 19592008 (in miles)
50,000
45,000
40,000
35,000
30,000
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
The Interstate Highway System
Canada
Interstate
Toll Road
Extent as of 2004
Albers Equal Area Conic Projection
Mexico
Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Dept. of Economics & Geography, Hofstra University.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
World Automobile Production and Fleet, 19652007
650
54
52
600
50
48
550
44
Fleet (millions)
500
42
450
40
38
400
36
34
350
32
Production (millions)
46
30
300
28
250
26
200
Fleet
24
150
Production
20
22
18
100
16
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Annual Vehicle-Miles Traveled in the United
States and Year-over-Year Changes, 1971-2009
8.0%
YOY Change in Vehicle-Miles Traveled
6.0%
3,000
Annual Vehicle-Distance Traveled (Billion Miles)
4.0%
2,500
2.0%
2,000
0.0%
-2.0%
1,500
-4.0%
1,000
Jan-71
Jan-72
Jan-73
Jan-74
Jan-75
Jan-76
Jan-77
Jan-78
Jan-79
Jan-80
Jan-81
Jan-82
Jan-83
Jan-84
Jan-85
Jan-86
Jan-87
Jan-88
Jan-89
Jan-90
Jan-91
Jan-92
Jan-93
Jan-94
Jan-95
Jan-96
Jan-97
Jan-98
Jan-99
Jan-00
Jan-01
Jan-02
Jan-03
Jan-04
Jan-05
Jan-06
Jan-07
Jan-08
Jan-09
-6.0%
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
1. Road Transportation
■ Public sector
• Main supplier of road transport infrastructures.
• Impractical to use a similar pricing system than a commercial
enterprise.
• Most roads are not economically profitable:
• Must be socially present as they are essential to service populations.
• Only specific trunks have a stable traffic.
• Toll roads:
• Highways linking large cities.
• Bridge and tunnels.
• Can expropriate the necessary land for road construction.
• Economies of scale and their indivisibility.
• The “free road curse”.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Costs and Revenues Linked with Road
Transportation
Costs
Revenue
Rights of way
Development costs (planning)
Construction and expropriation costs
Maintenance and administration costs
Losses in land taxes (urban environment)
External costs (accidents and pollution)
Registration
Gas (taxes)
Purchases of vehicles (taxes)
Tolls, parking, traffic violations and insurance
fees
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
2. Rail Transportation
■ Overview
• Composed of a traced path on which are bound vehicles.
• Average level of physical constrains:
• Linked to the types of locomotives.
• Affected by the gradient.
• Heavy industries are traditionally linked with rail transport
systems.
• Significant changes brought by containerization:
• Improved the flexibility of rail transportation.
• Integration with road and maritime modes.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Geographical Settings of Rail Lines
Penetration Lines
Local / Regional Networks
Transcontinental Lines
Nation A
Nation B
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
2. Rail Transportation
■ Geographical setting
• Established differently because different goals were to be
achieved.
• Access to resources.
• Servicing regional economies.
• Territorial control.
■ Rail monopolies
•
•
•
•
High level of economic and territorial control.
Monopoly in Europe and oligopoly in North America.
Regular (scheduled), but rigid, services.
Transport mode the most constrained by the physiography.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Ownership of Major North American Rail Lines,
2008
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Rail Technical Issues
Space consumption
Small along lines.
Important at terminals.
Gradient and turns
4% for passengers (40 meters per kilometer).
1% for freight (10 meters per kilometer).
Vehicles
Very flexible in terms of vehicles and a wide variety of purposes.
Bulk, liquids, grain, containers, passengers, cattle, cars, coal.
Gauge
Standard gauge of 1.4351 meters for North America and for most
Western Europe.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Major Gauges of the Global Rail Systems, 2008
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Percent of Rail Passenger Traffic to Total Rail
Traffic, 2000
Japan
Netherlands
Ireland
Danmark
Korea
United Kingdom
Italy
India
Germany
Belgium
Turkey
Australia
Spain
Poland
Finland
China
Russia
United States
Canada
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Passengers-Km Share
70
80
90
100
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Rail Track Mileage and Number of Class I Rail
Carriers, United States, 1830-2007
300,000
200
Rail Track Mileage
Class I Rail Carriers
160
140
Miles of tracks
200,000
120
150,000
100
Rail Carriers
250,000
180
80
100,000
60
40
50,000
20
0
1830
1850
1870
1890
1910
1930
1950
1970
1990
0
2010
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Economic Rationale of Rail Transportation
Market Area
Longest service area for inland transport (average length of 1,300 km).
Service both the passengers and freight markets.
Intermodal integration favored market segmentation and specialization.
Capacity
A wagon can carry 50 to 100 tons of freight.
Economies of scale (unit trains and doublestacking).
Costs
High construction and maintenance costs.
High operating costs: labor (60%), locomotives (16%) and fuel & equipment
(24%).
Shipping costs decrease with distance and load.
Transshipments and train assembly increase costs.
Benefits
Accelerated industrialization.
Support agricultural and energy supply systems.
Intermodal connecting with international trade.
Regulation
Conventionally highly dependent from government subsidies.
Governments financing, mainly for the sake of national economic imperatives.
From regulation to deregulation.
Private ownership and operations.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
2. Rail Transportation
■ High speed train networks
• Require special lines, but can also use existing lines at a lower
speed.
• Speed of about 300 km/h.
• Separation between passenger and freight traffic.
• By-passing several centers of less importance.
• Able to compete effectively with air transportation for average
distances.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Travel Times before and after the Introduction of
a High Speed Train Service (hours)
Wuhan - Guangzhou
Taipei - Kaohsiung
Seoul - Busan
Tokyo - Osaka
Paris - Marseille
Madrid - Seville
London - Paris
Paris - Bruxelles
Berlin - Hannover
Hannover Wurzburg
After
Before
Firenze - Rome
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
4. Maritime Transport
■ Issues
•
•
•
•
•
Using buoyancy to transport.
Lowest use of energy per unit carried.
Speed limitations.
Require ports.
International trade and maritime transportation:
•
•
•
•
Interrelated.
90% in terms of volume (in ton-km)
71% in terms of value.
For every $1,000 of exports, there is one ton of freight being shipped by
maritime transportation.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
International Seaborne Trade and Exports of
Goods, 1955-2008
16
2.5
15
Seaborne Trade (billions of tons of goods loaded) - Left Axis
14
Exports of Goods (trillions of current $US) - Left Axis
13
Ratio Exports / Seaborne Trade - Right Axis
2
12
11
10
9
1.5
8
7
6
1
5
4
3
0.5
2
1
0
0
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Domains of Maritime Circulation
Strategic by its control.
Commercial by its usage.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Main Maritime Shipping Routes
Obligatory points of passage, which are strategic places.
Physical constraints (coasts, winds, marine currents, depth, reefs, ice).
Political borders.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Maritime Enclaves and Accessibility
Not part of an oceanic domain of maritime circulation.
Requires agreements with neighboring countries:
Access to a port facility through a road, a rail line or through a river.
Substantially higher transport costs.
On average 50% higher than countries that are not landlocked.
Less than 40% of the trade volume of the median coastal country.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Types of Vessels
Passenger ferries
Carried across relatively short bodies of water in a shuttle-type service.
Tend to be small and fast vessels, except for high volume markets (e.g.
English Channel).
Many are RORO vessels.
Cruise ships
Trips of various durations, usually over several days.
Several amenities (restaurants, theaters, swimming pools, casinos) .
Usually very large capacity ships.
Before air transportation, serviced by liner passenger ships, dominantly
over the North Atlantic.
RORO vessels
Roll on – Roll off
Allow cars, trucks and trains to be loaded directly on board.
The largest are the car carriers that transport vehicles from assembly
plants to main markets.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
English Channel Ferry Ship Entering the Port of
Le Havre, France
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Cruise Ship
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
RO-RO Cargo Ship
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Types of Vessels
Bulk cargo
Freight, both dry or liquid, that is not packaged.
Minerals (oil, coal, iron ore) and grains.
Use of specialized ships such as oil tankers.
Specialized transshipment and storage facilities.
Single origin, destination and client.
Prone to economies of scale.
Break-bulk cargo
Cargo packaged in some way (bags, boxes or drums).
Numerous origins, destinations and clients.
Before containerization, economies of scale were difficult to achieve.
Dominance of the containership.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
World Tonnage by Cargo Vessel Type, 1970-2009 (in
millions dwt)
1,200
1,000
Other
800
Containerships
General cargo
600
Bulk carriers
400
Oil tankers
200
0
1970 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Ton-miles Shipped by Maritime Transportation,
1970-2007 (in billions)
2007
2005
2000
1995
Oil
1990
Iron Ore
1985
Coal
1980
Grain
Containers and other
1970
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
35,000
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
World’s Largest Dry-Bulk Carrier, the Berge Stalh
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Liquid Natural Gas Carrier (bulk)
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Reefer Ship
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
The Evelyn Maersk (Containership: break-bulk)
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Six Generations of Containerships
First
(1956-1970)
Second
(1970-1980)
Length
135 m
Converted Cargo Vessel
200 m
Converted Tanker
Cellular Containership
215 m
Draft
<9m
< 30 ft
10 m
33 ft
250 m
Third
(1980-1988)
Fourth
(1988-2000)
Fifth
(2000-2005)
Sixth
(2006-)
Panamax Class
290 m
Post Panamax
11-12 m
36-40 ft
TEU
500
800
1,000 –
2,500
3,000
4,000
275 –
305 m
11-13 m 4,000 –
36-43 ft 5,000
335 m
13-14 m 5,000 –
43-46 ft 8,000
397 m
15.5 m 11,000 –
50 ft 14,500
Post Panamax Plus
New Panamax
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
The Largest Available Containership, 1970-2008
(in TEUs)
14,000
E “Emma” Class
(12,500 TEU)
12,000
10,000
S “Sovereign” Class
(8,000 TEU)
8,000
R “Regina” Class
(6,000 TEU)
6,000
4,000
L “Lica” Class
(3,400 TEU)
2,000
0
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
4. Maritime Transport
■ Pendulum services
• Prior to containerization, loading or unloading a ship was a very
expensive and time consuming task.
• Cargo ships typically spent more time docked than at sea.
• Set of sequential port calls along a maritime range.
• Transoceanic service from ports in another range and structured
as a continuous loop.
• Servicing a market by balancing the number of port calls and the
frequency of services.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Types of Maritime Routes
Point to point service.
Return empty.
Common for bulk freight.
Shipping service moving back
and forth between two maritime
ranges (seaboards).
Balancing the number of port
calls and the frequency of
services.
Servicing continuously a
sequence of ports.
Sequence enables a round trip
around the world.
Limited amount of ports per
continent are serviced.
Involve a series of
transshipment hubs.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Three Major Pendulum Routes Serviced by
OOCL, 2006
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
AMAX Round-the-World Route
New York
Los Angeles
Norfolk
Savannah
Miami
Halifax
Barcelona Genoa
Naples
Valencia
Haifa
Damietta
Lianyungang
Shanghai
Ningbo
Xiamen
Yantian
Chiwan
Port Kelang
Rotation: 62 day
Lianyungang ►5 days► Port Kelang ►12 days ► Damietta ►9 days ► Valencia ►8 days ► New York ►17 days ► Los Angeles ►11 days ►Lianyungang
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Technical Innovations in Maritime Transport
Size
Each time the size of a ship is doubled, its capacity is cubed.
Remaining constraints in ship size are the capacity of ports and canals.
Speed
Average speed of ships is about 15 knots (1 knot = 1 marine mile =
1,853 meters), which is 28 km per hour; about 575 km per day.
Recent ships can travel between 25 to 30 knots (45 to 55 km per hour).
Reaching higher maritime speeds remains a costly challenge.
Specialization of
ships
General cargo ships, tankers, grain carriers, barges, mineral carriers,
bulk carriers, methane carriers and container ships.
Ship design
Hulls are the result of considerable efforts to minimize energy
consumption, construction costs and improve safety.
A ship can take between 4 months (container and crude carriers) and 1
year to build (cruise ship).
Automation
Self-unloading ships
Computer assisted navigation (crew needs are reduced and safety is
increased) and global positioning systems.
Smaller crews being required to operate larger ships.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
4. Maritime Transport
■ Flags of convenience
• 46% of the ships and about 67% of the global tonnage (2007).
• Regulation:
• Under maritime law, the owner is bound to the rules and regulations of the
country of registration.
• Registry costs:
• Registry costs are on average between 30 to 50% lower than those of
North America and Western Europe.
• Operating costs:
• From 12 to 27% lower than traditional registry fleets.
• Savings are coming from lower manning expenses.
• Lower standards in terms of salary and benefits.
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Tonnage by Country of Registry, 2006
China P.R.
Dry bulk
Container
Cyprus
Tanker
Malta
Other
Singapore
Bahamas
Marshall Is.
Hong Kong
Greece
Liberia
Panama
0
50,000,000
100,000,000
150,000,000
200,000,000
250,000,000
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Emerging Global Maritime Freight Transport
System
© Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue